No Im tracking with what you are saying. No rush on getting the pics. I think the way your explaining is probably the way I will go. To me seems the easiest to acquire and cost friendly.

Any thoughts on the size steel you would use to frame up? I am BAD about over building and using too big of material. Don't think it would be a bad thing here but don't want to use some 1/4 wall stuff when its not needed.

I appreciate your help on this. I am trying to shift gears and get my project moving.

We are converting a Crown Coach. Crowns came with a single air door that went inward when opened. They also had a huge rubber strip opposite of the hinge. Good so that students' arms and legs did not get bruised or broken if the powerful air door closed on them. Not good for wind, noise, critters, etc. See photo below.

We took the old door skin off, and extended the frame so the door completely filled in the door opening. We used a 3.5 inch steel extension that was welded to the end of the old frame.

We then cut out the holes for the windows.

We put a deadbolt keyed lock (keyed both inside and outside) on, painted it, put new rubber and windows in, put new rubber around the door and jam to create a more air tight seal, and finally adjusted the air actuator system for the door mechanism.

Total cost for all of this was about $600. But we have a door that was redesigned to work with the air system in the bus and maintained the character of the original Crown door. It looks great and keeps out the weather, road noise, wind, bugs and critters. We created our own screen system that uses magnets around the door frame when we want the front door left open and bugs left out.

We turned our original bus' two piece door into a one piece door based upon instructions on how to do the same with an Eagle two piece door. Still gives us all the view out the door while driving and it looks better.

Gosh - we don't even have Clementine home yet and my head is swimming with ideas... I'm still stuck on what to do for windows and haven't given any consideration to doors just yet but now thanks to this thread I have some amazing inspiration - I foresee us converting the existing doors. Brilliant!

__________________fly the coopFig. to escape; to get out or get away. (Alludes to a chicken escaping from a chicken coop.) I couldn't stand the party, so I flew the coop. The prisoner flew the coop at the first opportunity.

We turned our original bus' two piece door into a one piece door based upon instructions on how to do the same with an Eagle two piece door. Still gives us all the view out the door while driving and it looks better.

I plan to use the same idea for my door. I found at highway speeds my door starts to pull open and let in cold air.

DISCLAIMER! This is what works for us. It may or may not work for you. There are other cheaper, more expensive, better, worse, simpler, more complicated, safer, more dangerous ways of doing the same thing. Do your own research to find what will work for you in your situation.

The problem we found with using a residential door is that the steel exterior doors tended to not be available in the size we needed. It was a height problem. Metal doors aren't really designed to be cut down, especially those solid glass storm doors. We did not want to use a wood door either. We really weren't too wild about using a residential or RV door in the first place. But still we did consider it.

We turned our original bus' two piece door into a one piece door based upon instructions on how to do the same with an Eagle two piece door. Still gives us all the view out the door while driving and it looks better. We used a thick piece of rubber for the weatherstripping only to have to dump it and get a hollow tube type (sometimes you can't use what you got). Now the door fits/closes/latches much better and it solved the popping open problem we had (all due to the too thick weather stripping). We built the door framing out of old bed rails.

We did have to shim out to make the residential door handle fit (bus door is thinner than a residential door). We still need to clad the interior with PVC trim and add some plexi panels over the glass to make them dual pane as we get a lot of cold air off the door in the winter due to thermal conduction. We have found that the lever handle works much better than the knob particularly when it is cold and/or wet out and/or our hands are full. I got fed up one day that the knob iced over and I couldn't get into the bus. So I bought the lever handle the next day. Should have bought the lever in the first place.

For a screen door, last summer I bought one of those As Seen On TV magnetic screen doors. Works great and I can remove the thing in the winter. Last fall, I pulled it off and rinsed it in the shower then stored it for the winter. This spring, I pulled it out of the cedar chest and hung it back up. Downsides to the magnetic screen: it has a fondness to attaching to the steel door (that will be solved when we add the layer of PVC trim over the door), the material is flimsy (has a few snags and a hole from getting caught on something), it's a tad too long (our entrance is only about 78" high) and wide (made for a 36" door opening). So I will cannibalize the magnets off the As Seen On TV screen make another one this summer out of shade screen. We will be replacing all the screens with shade screen when we build the plantation shutters for the windows (no curtains to launder due to dust) and I will be buying a pile of the stuff.

Old pics of the door (sorry no new pics)....

How did you redirect your door so it opened like that? Mine both open out separately but I like how yours looks. Trying to find a way to use my current bus doors but mod it like that just don't know how to start.

We are converting a Crown Coach. Crowns came with a single air door that went inward when opened. They also had a huge rubber strip opposite of the hinge. Good so that students' arms and legs did not get bruised or broken if the powerful air door closed on them. Not good for wind, noise, critters, etc. See photo below.

We took the old door skin off, and extended the frame so the door completely filled in the door opening. We used a 3.5 inch steel extension that was welded to the end of the old frame.

We then cut out the holes for the windows.

We put a deadbolt keyed lock (keyed both inside and outside) on, painted it, put new rubber and windows in, put new rubber around the door and jam to create a more air tight seal, and finally adjusted the air actuator system for the door mechanism.

Total cost for all of this was about $600. But we have a door that was redesigned to work with the air system in the bus and maintained the character of the original Crown door. It looks great and keeps out the weather, road noise, wind, bugs and critters. We created our own screen system that uses magnets around the door frame when we want the front door left open and bugs left out.